After vastly different performances led to the same result, the Kings face a crossroads heading into Game 5

On Saturday, 12 hours after Game 3, I asked Blake Lizotte and Adrian Kempe whether a 6-1 loss was easier to move past than if they were to say lose 3-2 in overtime, playing well but coming up short.

My thought process was, the Kings knew well before the final buzzer than the game was lost. They didn’t play well and lost. In this series, they had yet to play well and lose, to that point. The game in which they played well, Game 2, they won. In some ways, did a game like that make it easier?

“I guess there’s something to be said of that,” Lizotte said. “If it’s an emotional overtime loss, sometimes that can lead to the next day. I think in the playoffs, it’s one game at a time and you to just almost flush the bad games and kind of take what you think went wrong and improve it the next game.”

Kempe wasn’t happy with Game 3. He said he went home frustrated, went to sleep frustrated, following a performance that, as a team, wasn’t up to what it could have been.

“When it’s after a game like that, you go home and you’re really frustrated,” he said. “I can only speak for myself, really frustrated by your game and how it went. You kind of felt like you’re in the game and then all of a sudden you’re not in the game. The last 10 minutes felt like it took 45 minutes to play. So I mean, it was pretty frustrating.”

I thought they both answered the question honestly, though the reality was that it was a 6-1 loss they were coming off of. That’s what was fresh in their mind and that was the context the question was being asked in.

Honestly, in the postseason, this group didn’t have a ton of experience losing when they played close to their best. You could look at Games 4 and 6 last season, when the Kings narrowly led in expected goals but lost. Last night, though, was different.

I’ll say what I posted on social media last night, and what I talked with a bunch of people about after the game.

I thought that was the most complete 60 minutes the Kings have played in two months. The date for me was February 29, when the Kings beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 in British Columbia. I can’t think of a game since that night that the Kings played better than they did last night. Certainly not against a playoff team. And here I am, saying that after a 1-0 loss in the playoffs, scoring zero goals, on a night when I really can’t think of a jaw-dropping, Grade-A chance that was missed. I don’t know if it sounds ridiculous, you might all disagree, but man that’s what I truly felt leaving the arena last night. I thought the Kings executed to a T and came up short.

So, within a span of 48 hours, the Kings know what it feels like to lose 6-1, on a night when pretty much nothing went your way, and how it feels to lose when you bring something close to your very best but come up short.

The reactions last night were just different.

The words used were the same but the context and the delivery was certainly different.

We heard frustrated, disappointment and challenging – among others – to describe the result, delivered maybe in a tone of disbelief. There wasn’t any questioning of the effort or the performance, because how could there be. The Kings felt that they executed so well in so many different areas of the game, but they came away on the wrong side of a 1-0 decision.

I’d be frustrated, disappointed and challenged, too.

I think that puts this team at a crossroads, between the easy route and the hard route.

The easy route is to accept that last night was your best punch and it didn’t knock the opponent down. They stumbled, but they didn’t fall. To roll up to Edmonton, feeling like you left your best on the table and it didn’t result in a win……on the easy route, that would be that. The easy route most likely ends in five games.

The hard route is one we’re all hoping this team takes and it’s the one I expect them to take. Trevor Moore said after the game that veterans in the room, in the aftermath of Game 4, spoke up about what is required from a team down 3-1 in a series. Guys like Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Trevor Lewis have done it in Los Angeles. Phillip Danault did it in Montreal. Across the NHL, it’s actually happened in each of the last three seasons, so it can and has been done. But it sure won’t be easy.

The hard route is accepting where you are, but also understanding that the way forward has been clearly established. If the Kings play as complete a 60 minutes as they did in Game 4 again in Game 5, they will score. If it’s a detailed, carbon copy, they’ll more than likely win.

“We played as well as we did in a long, long time,” Head Coach Jim Hiller said this morning. “What do we do, we just go and play that game again. I said it last night, the guys should be feeling good, despite the loss, what can you do, that’s playoff hockey, it goes up and down. We’ve got a game that can beat them going back into Edmonton and that was it last night.”

It’s easy to type that out and say it here, but much harder to do it on the ice. The hard route is bringing that exact game into Edmonton and executing again and again and again.

This doesn’t feel like a group that is interested in taking the easy route. Too much character in the room. Here’s to hoping I’m proven right, because if I am, then the Kings have a good chance at making this a 3-2 series. If you’re heading into a Game 6, no matter what has happened, one team has to be leading 3-2. You get there, it’s winning once at home to extend the series again. Again, easier said than done.

It’s easy to spell out the hard route but much more difficult to travel down it. Practice tomorrow before the flight to Edmonton and it’s Game 5 on Wednesday at Rogers Place. Time to go exploring.